Visiting the holy grounds to see the swordsman

One day before attempting to claim the title as the towerkeeper of Korin’s Tower, Galen had done something else: he had finished building a small and still humble training dojo on the Holy Grounds, in the same glade he had sparred against Saki, the Red Tiger and Chirstopher. It seemed like a really fitting place to be his training grounds and he was pleased with the outcome of it: the whole area was but a wooden floor he had placed on top of the grass, sustained in order to absorb the impact of footwork and from falls from the fighters. It had a high roof, in order to be good enough for sword practice and to accommodate a couple fighters flying at a low altitude, but still enough to maneuver and fight at their fullest capabilities. It took him a few days to finish the dojo, but he was proud. The architecture of it resembled his father’s rice deposit on his home village, Goddodin, and he did so willingly as a memento of where he came from and his origins as a rice farmer and the protector of his village; the later being a duty he failed to fulfill.

Once it was finally finished, Galen started training right away. After months trying to understand the principles of the Kikoukenjutsu Sword School by himself and failing, he had finally found a tome with further teachings in the library of the Timeless Lookout. At first that discovery surprised him to no end, but in the end it only made sense: Goten and Trunks were Z-Fighters back at the day, and they trained there too, or at least that was what the tome said and Galen read it carefully throughout the night, in order to absorb the most he could. One thing he realized was that he had to correct his grip in order to reach a better efficacy on his cuts and trusts. He was holding a sword in an instinctive way, but that was wrong. When you don’t think carefully, you end up holding it as if it was an axe, putting a lot of effort in the wrists and shoulders, which is wrong and taxing on the body.

The correct way to hold a sword is to use it as if you are holding an umbrella, with strength mostly on the pinky and ring finger and just a little bit on the middle finger. If one would put it into percentages, it would be 50% for the pinky, 40% for the ring finger and only 10% for the middle finger. The index finger applies no strength to the grip, but its kept as if you are holding a gun, with your index on the trigger; this position allows for the fighter to stop the sword mid-strike more properly and relaxes the tension on the wrist enough as to save a load of stamina and physical distress. It also helped relax the shoulder almost completely and, instead, use the strength of the upper back to strike. All of that seemed like rather simple concepts, but they made a hell of a difference and, by applying them into his practice, Galen felt his sword much lighter, more precise and increasingly deadlier, and that was amazing, the human swordsman thought.

With this new knowledge towards the correct way to hold the sword, his posture improved and, with that, his speed and power. That allowed him to finally master the second tier technique of the Kikoukenjustu Sword School, the Rapid Sword Stream, which consisted of slashing multiple times in rapid motions, an action previously impossible because of the wrong way he was using the sword. The final slash of the technique was a rather powerful one and Galen had to be carefully not to hit a wall, or he would cause some serious damage to his newly built and still quite simple training dojo.

– Phew… That’s good! Hahaha! I’m finally improving! It means a lot to me! Hahahaha! – he spoke to himself, satisfied with his accomplishment. Still, once he finished speaking, he heard a rather familiar voice calling his name. The human arched one of his eyebrows. – Saki? – he exclaimed, quite unsure of himself; the last time he met his friend, he looked absurdly different. He claimed it was due to the fact that he became an artificial being, an android, but Galen didn’t really know anything about that. Following the voice, the boy walked towards the outside of his hall and saw the same person he met at the Timeless Lookout, the different Saki. ”Saki Digital, or something like that…” he remembered, making a brief nod to himself. Galen was quite sweaty, meaning he had been training heavily for a while now, but, yet, he managed to crack his gentle smile and giggle a bit.

– Oh, hey! I still haven’t got used to this knew appearance of you! Please, come in! This is a training hall I’ve built… Still quite rudimentary, but I will improve it with time. Hehehe! – he said in a rather excited tone. – So, what are you doing around these parts? – he asked as he reached a small bottle of water with a couple glasses and poured the water into it, offering one of the glasses to Saki. – Do you still drink water? – he innocently asked, unsure of how androids worked on that matter.

Galen giggled a bit more, blushing slightly when Saki made comments about his building skills, and he also scratched the back of his neck. – This is nothing, really! I’ve learned a thing or two about building with my father back at my home. I had to help him build storages for rice and this kind of stuff… So… I know it doesn’t look quite like a proper dojo, but does bring back some memories of my time as a rice farmer and I like it! Hehehe! – he said, pausing a bit to laugh in a bit of embarrassment. – As for the sword training, I’ve found some tomes in the Timeless Lookout, teaching a tad bit more about my sword style and I’ve finally figured out a couple of things in order to help me improve and, jeez! Details! A simple detail can change the world! Hahaha! – and it was so very true and even funny to realize that. What the position of a finger could do to one’s skill. It didn’t seize to amuse Galen.

Saki said he wouldn’t drink water and, although he didn’t particularly answer if he did need water or not, Galen didn’t bother to insist on asking. Instead, he rested the glass on the table and drank his own glass of water slowly as he listened to Saki. Seemed like the android had improved in his own training as well and, although Galen couldn’t feel any energy signature from him, probably due to his mechanical nature, he didn’t doubt he had become quite the strong guy, even stronger than he was in the past. Now that he had become a martial arts master, it also meant that he had a very polished technique and that put him leagues apart from the young human swordsman. The android also wanted to see how his style would fare against the Kikoukenjutsu Sword School, and that made Galen chuckle a bit and shrug. – I don’t see how could I beat you, but… Sure, we can have a little spar! It would be good to test how much I’ve improved anyway! Honestly… It has been a while since the last time I’ve actually fought someone! – and that was true; the last serious spar the human had was with Christopher, and that was months ago. Ever since then, he had been training by himself and that was good, but couldn’t even dream to compare to an actual fight.

He also mentioned that he had defeated the future turtle master Son Gouken, and that made Galen arch one of his eyebrows. ”Gouken, uhn? Gouken was very strong back then… But… He had died, right? On the battle against Caesar?” Galen wondered, with a quite intrigued expression on his face. Yet, he chose to remain silent as Saki continued. He also explained about some sort of power-up technique he had never even heard about. ”Kaioken… Times Ten… Doesn’t ring a bell…” he thought to himself, shrugging once again. Then, he stared at Saki with a serious and a bit concerned expression.

– Gouken… I thought he was dead… I mean… At least that was what I’ve been told. He and Christopher… They were killed by a man named Caesar, or Jarvis… I can’t know for sure… Something related to the great battle of Kami against the saiyans. You say you fought him? When was it? – he asked him.

Contrary to any logic, seemed like Gouken had returned to the realm of the living and that shocked Galen quite a lot, while, at the same time, filled his heart with hope. ”It means… That Chris can come back too!” he thought to himself, and Saki confirmed that too, although without explaining a lot of it. Indeed, who knew what happens when you die? Galen shook his head, trying to take those thoughts away from him and then Saki said that they should stop talking and get down to business and he made a quick but enthusiastic nod. It was about time to see just how much Galen had progressed and, if he was fighting Saki, he knew he couldn’t really hold back, so he channeled his inner power, his ki energy and flared a powerful blue-ish ki aura around his body, that managed to increase his power level at least three times; it was his Last Resort ability.

[Last Resort Activated. Current Power Level: 174,249]

Galen’s power level skyrocketed to nearly two hundred thousand, nearly as much as Ayami’s power level when she walked out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, before she unleashed her true power, and stronger than Cambia’s base power level too. Galen was quite impressed with his newly found power, but he knew all too well that it wouldn’t be enough to impress Saki, or to give him the upper hand in that battle to come. Still, he cared not! He was going to show his friend just how much he had progressed and he was going to do it now. Galen adjusted the grip on his sword and held it with both arms as he dashed forward against the android. – YAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! – he roared as he approached. Galen was trying to hit him with a horizontal and diagonal cut, coming from his lower hip of his right side, all the way to his left shoulder, should he hit. The human swordsman, however, wouldn’t be lowering his guard; he knew Saki would react to that, and he wanted to be prepared.

As the Lone Swordsman had already expected, Saki would use his absurd speed to completely dodge his attack, seeming as if he had used an afterimage technique due to his sheer speed. Galen narrowed his black eyes as his opponent vanished and quickly turned around in order to react accordingly to Saki’s next action; he knew he couldn’t let his guard down and he was hoping to be able to save the technique he had been practicing a while longer, but seemed like he wouldn’t have the luxury of time. The Crane Master reappeared and quickly used a technique that made him split into two warriors. Galen’s eyes widened as his brows arched, shocked by that sight. ”Wow! Now it’s two of them! And I can’t sense his power! I have no idea of what kind of opponent I’m facing! This is not good! And he is too fast! I need to use that now! Come on body, don’t fail me now!” he thought to himself as he closed his eyes tightly, tapping into the inner energy he had.

Then, almost immediately, without even waiting for what Saki was about to do after splitting, Galen increased his ki aura and roared with all his lungs. – Gravity Break! – with his shout, all of sudden an intense gravitational field started putting an absurd pressure onto Saki. This was one of the most special techniques of the Kikoukenjutsu Sword School, one that allowed the user to overcome all odds, even when facing a much stronger opponent. It was pretty much impossible to escape due to the nature of the technique; it was pure gravitational pressure, so intense that rendered the targets unable to move at all, leaving them completely stunned and, therefore, vulnerable to attacks.

Should that work, Galen would then focus all of his power in order to tap into the inner strength he had. His ki aura would quickly change to an intense pink colored aura that poured all of his increased ki energy into his strength, sacrificing his speed; but he didn’t need speed now if his opponent was stunned. No, he only needed power, and that his newly acquired Tension technique gave to him!

[ST-1] Tension used!
[Current Power Level: 290,415/58,083]

His offensive power level reached almost three hundred thousand and, with that, he immediately brought his sword up and charged against one of the copies; Galen believed that if he defeated one of them, he would already be at a much better situation, so he decided to focus on taking down one instead of damaging two. – Rapid Sword Stream! – he roared as he approached the copy from the left, slashing it multiple times at an amazing speed. Then, after plenty of slashes, he would raise his sword yet again and focus all of his power onto that final slash, so it could gather enough power to be a decent final blow of his newly learned sword combo from the Kikoukenjutsu Sword School.

Once he finished that, he would start panting heavily, feeling completely drained after using both his stunning technique and his offensive technique. The ki aura remained pink, however, since he didn’t have time to react or even deactivate it before his Gravity Break lost its efficacy. In the end, he had gambled all of his stamina and power onto that move, especially because he didn’t know how powerful Saki was. In truth, if that first attack hit him, it would be more than enough to nearly kill him, if not actually killing him due to the absurd gap in power.

His tactics worked! Saki, even being so strong, was stunned by the Gravity Break technique, allowing Galen to summon his newly acquired Tension technique and strike him with an empowered version of the Kikoukenjustu Sword School’s Rapid Sword Stream, hitting the copy on the left and scrapping against the armored skin, but the damage was too low to even get close on defeating the clone. Galen widened his eyes as he continued to pant heavily. – N-not even a dent… S-seems like… We are still… W-worlds apart! – he realized, sighing with a little frustration. The following second, he could no longer sustain his Gravity Break and, once Saki was released from it, he attacked with an absurd power.

Galen was completely overwhelmed due to the volley of energy blasts and finger beams that his clothes were completely destroyed. The boy feel to the ground, breaking through the floor and the structure he had just built started falling apart; his dojo was reduced to wooden ruins. But, worse than the Dojo, was the human swordsman himself. All his bones were broken and his muscle torn apart. It was a true miracle he wasn’t killed by that attack that had enough power to completely wipe him out of the face of the Earth. Maybe the gods protected him from that fearsome attack? Well, that was the only logical explanation for his survival. Yet, he was left in a terribly sorry state and no longer able to do anything. If he wasn’t taken care of immediately, he would most certainly die.